1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to pickup trucks and more particularly to a manually applied fastening device preventing unauthorized removal of a tailgate from a pickup truck bed.
Pickup trucks conventionally include a pickup bed having side walls terminating equidistant rearwardly of the truck cab and interconnected transversely of the truck bed by a hingedly mounted tailgate substantially equal in vertical dimension with the side walls forming the pickup bed.
Latch members adjacent the upper limit of the respective end of the tailgate, are releasably connected with the respective side wall of the truck bed so that when released the tailgate may pivot about a horizontal axis, in the plane of the truck bed, toward a rearward and downward direction terminating in a horizontal plane substantially forming a continuation of the horizontal plane of the truck bed.
The tailgate is normally maintained in this lowered horizontal position by a pair of links or cables at its respective ends pivotally connected at one end with the tailgate end upper limit and pivotally connected at their other end with a stud horizontally mounted on the upper portion of the respective upper inner surface of the truck bed side wall.
Most horizontal hinge mountings of a pickup tailgate permit the tailgate to be lifted out of hinge forming sockets at the respective lower limit of the side walls adjacent each end of the tailgate.
The lever linkage or cable end members connecting the tailgate to the bed side walls are removable therefrom when manipulated in a certain fashion so that the tailgate can be separated from the pickup bed. This feature also makes it possible for unauthorized persons to remove a tailgate from a pickup bed.
This invention provides a device by which truck owners, not desiring to remove their tailgate from the pickup bed, to equip their tailgate with antitheft fasteners which normally prevent unauthorized removal of the tailgate from a pickup bed.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Most prior patents of which I am aware disclose hinge mounting features connecting the lower limit of the tailgate to the truck bed side walls near the plane of the truck bed and do not address the problem of arranging the tailgate linkage supporting members against theft of the tailgate.